Let's talk about motivation. Why do customers buy from you?
Is it because you're an overwhelmingly persuasive,
silver-tongued devil? Is it because you have strong personal
relationships with your clients? These attributes can't hurt,
but you need more than just good looks and charm to sell a
customer. You need ideas.

The main reason people buy from you is because you give them
something of value. The most valuable item you can bring to clients
is an idea to meet one of their needs or help them reach one of
their goals. Ideas are motivators.

Now you're ready for the next step in the Creative Selling
System. Step one is acquiring some basic knowledge about the
client. Once you've learned about the basics of the
client's business, you can develop a client goal to be reached
or need to be satisfied. That's the second step. The third step
is when you come up with an idea to reach that goal. I call this
"ideation."

I'm careful to point out the three separate steps because
one of the biggest temptations you face is coming up with an idea
and immediately pitching it. But if the idea is not connected to a
goal, you're going to be wrong a lot of the time. If you'll
just do the first two steps-research the customer and come up
with a goal-before you take the third step, you'll find
that your ideas are a lot more accurate and much more
attractive.

Demand Stage Selling

Wouldn't it be great if you could read your customers'
minds? You know, get inside their heads and walk around a little
bit? The very best salespeople seem to have that
ability-it's as if they know what customers are going to
say before they say it. They have a sixth sense about which
objections a particular customer is most likely to raise. They know
what benefits ring the prospect's bell.

Some of this clairvoyant ability comes from experience, of
course. Even more of it comes from advanced listening skills. Top
salespeople really listen when their prospect is talking and pick
up small cues that many people miss. Many good salespeople are also
students of human psychology. They make it a point to study human
nature and learn a lot about their customer in the process.

One important talent top salespeople have is the ability to
recognize customers' demand stages and shape their
presentations accordingly. They determine if customers are getting
ready to place an order or just starting to comparison shop. They
can tell whether customers have already decided to buy the product
and are negotiating for the best price or whether they're
weighing other options. They understand that different things are
important to the customer at each step in the buying process. They
practice Demand Stage Selling.

Demand Stage Selling is a technique that identifies how far
along in the buying process a customer has progressed. This tactic
dictates that you create a presentation which appeals specifically
to someone at each particular stage. Demand Stage Selling
immediately helps block out irrelevant objections and tremendously
improves your closing ratios.

Three Stages Of Demand
Clients go through several stages in the decision process. First,
they have to recognize a need and decide to buy something to fill
that need. This decision creates primary demand. You can equate
this stage to that little hunger pang you get in the late
afternoon. Your need is the hunger, so you make a decision to
purchase something to satisfy that hunger. You're experiencing
primary demand.

Customers then have to decide on a type of product or service
that will fill their need, thus creating secondary demand. What are
you hungry for? That's secondary demand-deciding how
you're going to satisfy the primary demand. You have
choices-a candy bar, a piece of fruit, or some microwave
popcorn.

Finally, the customer must decide which service provider or
product brand to buy. This is third-level demand. In my afternoon
snack example, this is when you decide whether to buy the Snickers
or the Milky Way. You make the final purchase decision. In sales,
this is the stage concentrated on most heavily.

More Money = More
Stages
Big-ticket purchases often require a drawn out decision-making
process that involves many smaller decisions within each demand
stage. Consider automobiles. First, customers have to decide to buy
a car. They may vacillate between the economy of repairing their
old clunker and the ego boost of driving something new. While in
this stage, car buyers get estimates for repairs, do some
sticker-shopping on car lots, and gather the opinions of friends
and relatives.

They then have to decide what type of car
they want. There are numerous choices to be made at this
stage-new or used, sedan or SUV, front- or rear-wheel-drive,
foreign or domestic, convertible or hard-top, etc. At this point,
they collect brochures and magazine reviews, do a lot of
test-driving, and generally frustrate the dealer's sales staff
with their inability to give definite answers to their questions
about what they're looking for.

Finally, they have to choose a specific make
and model and comparison shop before making the actual purchase.
This may involve several visits and negotiating sessions. Buyers
may compare dealers and investigate other ways to acquire a car,
such as leasing or buying over the Internet.

As a rule, the larger the price tag, the
more stages the buyer will go through to reach a final
decision.

Match Sales Tactic To Demand
Stage
There are many different kinds of selling, each of which influences
different demand stages. There's transactional selling, which
focuses on filling orders efficiently. There's negotiation,
which concentrates on securing the greatest share of business at
the most profitable price points. Both of these occur at the third
level of demand. There's also missionary selling, which aims to
create new primary or secondary demand through educating
customers.

Sometimes you make presentations that attempt to persuade
prospective clients to choose your need-satisfying mechanism.
For example, the TV network salesperson presents reasons prospects
should use TV advertising instead of radio, without crowing about
the network's ratings. This is a clear attempt to create
secondary demand. Prospects have already made the decision to
advertise (having self-identified a need), and the salesperson is
trying to influence their decision on which medium to use. The
grand strategy, of course, is that the salesperson will get a fair
share of the buy if his or her medium is chosen.

It's easy to confuse the different types of selling and
expect the tools and techniques that apply to one to apply to
another. It's also easy to incorrectly identify a
customer's demand stage and take the wrong approach.

Most of the time, you concentrate so hard on getting market
share and securing the easy order, you forget to create new
business-or you try to create primary or secondary demand
using tools aimed at the third demand stage (e.g. pricing).
Sometimes you concentrate so much on getting new customers that you
forget to up-sell your current customers. This can lead to
growth-killing customer turnover. The most common mistake is to
apply a universal sales approach to all prospects regardless of
their demand stage.

Idea Selling Always
Applies
There is only one way to influence all three stages of the demand
creation process: Sell ideas! When you sell ideas, you create
primary demand by identifying the client's needs-it's
part of the idea development process. You also create secondary
demand by presenting an idea related to your type of
need-satisfaction. You most certainly create third-level
demand by selling ideas that your competitors can't offer.

One of the biggest obstacles faced by most salespeople and
marketing organizations is persuading more clients to enter the
market. That's why it's so hard to make cold calls.
Prospects who need a missionary-type pitch, but get a third-level
demand presentation, aren't likely to bite because they
don't perceive a need for the product. Think of it this way: If
you don't need a car (say you recently bought one), would you
buy another one just because the salesman made a good pitch? Of
course not.

Most salespeople aren't usually trying to create primary
demand when they cold call. They're really making as many calls
as possible in hopes of stumbling across a few prospects who have
already made the primary demand-creating decision to buy something,
but just haven't decided what to buy. Typical cold-callers then
hard-sell the prospect that's already in the market, securing
the sale instead of allowing a competitor to get it. In the
meantime, the salesperson wastes a great deal of time and effort
making the wrong type of pitch to other prospects.

Why do so many salespeople work this way? It's because
persuading the prospect that they have a need is the most difficult
hurdle to overcome. If I'm not hungry, it does no good to pitch
me on a candy bar. But if you waved a little chocolate under my
nose, it might stimulate my hunger. It's the same way with
ideas. When you can show the prospect an idea, or a new way of
looking at the possibilities for their business, they might
recognize a need they didn't see before.

Finding Ideas

Creative sellers with an open mind have an endless market for
their ideas. But most people don't consider themselves creative
enough to come up with good ideas. Their minds stop working when
someone asks for an idea.

Some people actually have lots of ideas but are hesitant to use
them because they're afraid they won't be good enough. They
don't offer their ideas, so they never get any positive
feedback, and since they don't get any feedback, they don't
offer their ideas. The loop is closed.

The problem with that kind of thinking is that it puts the onus
of judgment on the wrong person. The salesperson shouldn't
judge the merits of an idea-leave that to the prospect. If
the customer thinks it's good-it's good! Put the idea
in front of them using the best presentation skills you have and
let the prospect make the final judgment.

Stop worrying about being wrong and start taking a few chances.
If one prospect doesn't like the idea, take the same idea to
the next one. "Bad ideas" are just ideas that haven't
been sold yet, so keep pitching them. Like any good matchmaker,
you'll eventually put the right prospect with the right
idea.

Brainstorming
To come up with ideas to sell, you need to continually practice
brainstorming. You've probably been in brainstorming meetings
with your management and other salespeople. The techniques I'm
talking about are the same ones you use in a group meeting, only I
explore their use on an individual level. It's great to
participate in group sessions, but you can't rely on them to
generate all your ideas.

Here are the steps: Start by writing down your prospect's
goal. On the page below it, make a list of possible ways your
company's products or services could help the prospect reach
that goal. Follow the ground rules of successful brainstorming
while you're writing. (See Brainstorming
101)

In the next step, review the ideas and combine or extend them,
creating new ideas through the interplay of the elements of other
ideas. Again, don't be judgmental. It's not time to throw
out bad ideas. This combining and extending process should add
ideas to your list of possibilities, not remove them.

There are several ways to stimulate your brainstorm production.
Look inside the company for internal solutions. Many companies
package their products or create bundles of services that are
designed to meet the needs of certain categories of customers. You
certainly don't want to ignore those. The only caution is to be
sure the pre-packaged offering fits your prospect's particular
goal. You may need to "tweak" the package to make it
work.

Another source is free association with nonrelated concepts.
This is a fancy term for stealing an idea from someplace else. One
of my associates monitors TV commercials and thumbs through
magazine ads to see if there's a slogan or concept he can use
to springboard his own idea. For example, he'll take a
character like Tony the Tiger and create an animated cat named
Karla the Kitten who purrs "You'rrre grrrand" when
its owner feeds it Brand X. Or he'll take a slogan like
"You're in good hands with Allstate" and come up with
"You're in good form with Diet Rite." He's not
exactly stealing the other person's idea, just using it to
spark his own.

Another way to start this process is by examining past sales to
like customers. Don't look at the dollars and cents or the unit
volume. Look deeper and see if you can determine or surmise why the
customer made that purchase. Talk to the salespeople. Pick their
brains about the circumstances and events that led to the sale.
Sales veterans are usually full of stories about their battles and
victories. Next time you're subjected to a war story, see if
you can detect an idea that sparked the battle.

Brainstorming 1011. There's no such thing as a bad
idea. Write it down even if it's impossible.
Especially write it down if anyone in the room says,
"We've never done that before." Reserve judgment
until later.2. See how outrageous you can
be. Associate freely and write it down. The wilder the
idea, the better. Crazy ideas spark more ideas-mundane ones
are dead ends.3. Fill the page-then start another
one. Quantity is your goal because the more ideas you
list, the better the odds of finding a good one.4. Don't stop when you come to the
"right" idea. There could well be a better one
waiting to come out.
You don't need a group of people to brainstorm. You can do it
by yourself if you just open your mind and let it
create.

Choose an Idea
The third step is to choose the one idea you feel most confident
presenting. It should open a clear and direct path to the
prospect's goal. Judge the idea by its ability to achieve the
desired goal. Don't worry about non-relevant standards, like
whether it's ever been done before. All you need to be
concerned about is the idea's ability to accomplish the
prospect's goal, your company's ability to execute the
idea, and the idea's profitability to the prospect and your
company.

There is one final check to make before preparing your
presentation. See if you can clearly express your idea in a
sentence or two. Try to say it aloud without taking a breath. If
you can't, re-examine the idea to see if it's too
complicated. It may be too confusing for the prospect. Remember,
you're preparing for a first-call presentation. Your goal is to
make a strong and favorable first impression. Overwhelming a
prospect with a proposal that you can't explain in simple terms
is a sure way to lose a follow-up call.

Can you use this ideation process if you sell widgets or
fixtures or insurance? Why not? Don't your prospective
customers have related needs: growing sales, cutting costs,
employee morale? Of course they do. If not, your product or service
wouldn't exist. Open your mind to the possibilities.

You've come up with the ideas, now pick one and pitch it.
That's right. Pick one-any one. It doesn't matter
which idea you choose as long as you know your company can deliver
it. You can't choose one based on your knowledge of the
customer's likes and dislikes because you haven't met the
prospect-so just pick one and pitch it.

No Garden Variety
Idea
Let's work through the brainstorming process with the example I
started in the last chapter. As you may recall, your prospect is a
retail garden shop. You came up with six possible goals for the
prospect. The one you're going to choose for your first
proposal is:
"Raise the quality of my prospect's merchandise in the
mind of the best customer."
Here's a list of possible marketing ideas you can sell the
prospect that accomplish that goal:1. Run an ad campaign stressing
the name brands the store carries. National brands often denote
quality to the consumer.2. Adopt and publicize a new
slogan for the store: "We Sell the Best for Less" on all
ads, signage, stationary, etc.3. Build an ad campaign around
customer testimonials about the quality of plants purchased from
your prospect's store.4. Sponsor a "bountiful
garden" contest where customers submit the largest vegetables
they raised from seed or seedlings purchased from the
prospect.5. Place ads spoofing the Good
Housekeeping Seal of Approval for quality, awarding the
prospect's store the Good Gardener's Seal of
Approval.6. Create an animated flower
character, Rose Trueheart, for a spokesperson in a series of TV
commercials.
See how easy that is? This is a list of six different ideas, any
one of which accomplish your goal. Rose Trueheart may not be the
next Ronald McDonald, but she may be the final piece to your
marketing puzzle.

The Secret of the First
Call
That's when you'll learn the real secret to creative
selling. You see, your real goal on the first call is not
necessarily to sell that first idea-it's to gather as
much accurate information about the prospect as you can so
subsequent ideas will hit the mark.

As you gather information, you're also accomplishing several
other things. You will make a strong first impression by
demonstrating a willingness to invest your time in a study
of their needs. You will establish yourself as an idea
resource. If you bring them something of value in return for their
time, they are likely to see you again. Above all, your idea will
provoke a discussion about the prospect's needs, desires, goals
and opportunities. It's through that discussion that you learn
what they will buy from you.

Stockpile Ideas
Remember all those ideas you didn't use? Just like the unused
goals from the needs analysis step, save them for later. The
presentation you're preparing is just the first of many
you'll be making to this prospect. The prospect may not buy
your idea on the first call, so you'll need another one. Even
if the sale does happen, you may want to have those ideas available
for further development of the account through add-on sales or
contract extensions. Either way, you always need more ideas.

Another reason to keep all the unused goals and ideas on file is
their value to you in working on other prospects. The creative
selling process is very effort-intense. You'll invest a couple
hours of research and ideation into each proposal. It's much
more profitable to amortize that investment over several prospects
rather than just one. You probably have other potential customers
who are in similar, if not identical businesses. You'll find
their needs similar. Getting the most results from the amount of
work expended is a principle of good time management.

Many sales departments have a central file of ideas used by all
their salespeople. The background research and needs analysis are
also available in the file. Every time an idea-based proposal is
created, it goes into this file and the entire team can then draw
on it (if it isn't bought by the first prospect). From the
company's standpoint, such a system creates a valuable asset
for future growth. From the salesperson's perspective, it
prevents duplicating efforts already made by others.

As you can imagine, there are plenty of methods for organizing
and accessing this valuable resource. They can range from index
cards to databases. Even salespeople who work in relatively
isolated territories can pool their ideas through the Internet. No
matter what form it takes, the keys to building this resource are
volume and team work. Everyone has to pitch in. If not, the major
contributors will feel unfairly treated and keep their research and
ideas to themselves.

Your Motivation
Ideation has another benefit besides creating good customer
relations. It keeps your job interesting. There's an old sales
adage that says when you first start out, you're 90 percent
enthusiasm and 10 percent knowledge. After you've sold for
awhile, it changes to 90 percent knowledge and 10 percent
enthusiasm. The trade-off for gaining the knowledge is losing the
enthusiasm.

If you're selling the same tank car load of the same solvent
to the same customer at the same time year after year, it's
hard to get very excited about the next sale. Can you imagine the
customer's excitement level? But if you're constantly
challenging yourself to come up with a new use for that solvent or
a safer way to dispose of it, your enthusiasm for both the product
and the customer will go up. In turn, so will the
customer's.

Get out of the rut before the next truck comes along and grinds
you down deeper into it. Become an idea seller. Learn the skills of
ideation and practice them. You'll never grow bored with your
job because you'll be putting something new into it every
day.